Bummer. The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that Houston may not effectively void a state air pollution permit. The justices agreed with Southern Crushed Concrete that Houston’s 2007 law restricting the location of concrete-crushing facilities violates state statute by nullifying a permit issued by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. In reversing an appeals court [...]
Posts Tagged ‘David Feldman’
Schechter’s seat filled
The HCC Board of Trustees has named a replacement for the outgoing Richard Schechter. Houston Community College trustees unanimously agreed Thursday to appoint attorney Leila Feldman to fill a recently vacated seat on the school board. Feldman served as associate general counsel for HCC from March 2009 to June 2010 and is now the general [...]
Three things in life are certain
Death, taxes, and Bruce Hotze filing a lawsuit every time he loses an election. A local anti-tax activist filed a lawsuit Thursday to block the city of Houston from borrowing $410 million to add, expand and repair parks, libraries, police and fire stations and other government buildings. Bruce Hotze’s suit says the bond measures, which [...]
City settles with Treasures, county still on the case
Noted for the record. Prominent strip club Treasures, hauled into court as an alleged public nuisance and haven for crime by city and county attorneys seven months ago, has agreed to put $100,000 in a nuisance abatement fund as part of a settlement with the city of Houston, City Attorney David Feldman said. Harris County [...]
CM Brown reimburses the city for her magnets
Score one for David Feldman. Houston City Councilwoman Helena Brown has repaid the city nearly $3,000 in taxpayer money she spent on refrigerator magnets that the Texas Ethics Commission says amount to campaign swag. City Attorney David Feldman, who had asked Brown to reimburse the city before the commission issued its opinion Thursday, said Brown [...]
A third act for Jolanda?
Maybe. Jolanda Jones, who lost her at-large position 5 seat in last December’s runoff election, may run in next year’s elections to win a third term on Council — but this time it would be representing District D. The seat will be open next year because Councilwoman Wanda Adams is termed out. “I’m keeping my [...]
Helena’s magnets
It’s been awhile since my last Helena Brown post, hasn’t it? Houston City Attorney David Feldman has asked Councilwoman Helena Brown to reimburse the city nearly $3,000 in taxpayer money she spent on refrigerator magnets that he contends amount to re-election swag. Brown’s office has declined to pay the money back, and both sides have [...]
City says No to some of CM Brown’s expense reports
It’s always something. Councilwoman Helena Brown hired a private attorney to sit in on meetings with her publicly paid attorney, then tried to bill taxpayers for it. Records obtained by the Houston Chronicle reveal that Brown sought reimbursement for $850 she paid lawyer Kevin Colbert for meetings she had with the mayor and City Attorney [...]
The door will stay open
Good decision. A proposal to give Houston City Council the ability to meet behind closed doors is dead. What a mayor’s spokeswoman called a “lack of consensus” was manifest in a committee meeting last week during which several council members criticized the idea as bad policy and bad timing. [...] Mayor Annise Parker’s agenda for [...]
The discussion is closed
I don’t know about this. The mayor and city attorney are floating the idea of shutting the public out of some City Council discussions. Houston is unusual, perhaps even unique, among Texas cities in requiring that its council always meet in public. On Thursday, City Attorney David Feldman unveiled a proposal to authorize closed-session discussions [...]
As Helena Brown turns
The soap opera continues. Houston City Councilwoman Helena Brown tried to coerce a staffer to go on medical leave because of her pregnancy, according to a memo the employee filed with the council’s administrative office. Sandra Kim, Brown’s constituent liaison, wrote an April 23 memorandum quoting Brown as saying in front of several staff members [...]
CM Brown alleged to have altered time cards
Oh, my. Houston City Councilwoman Helena Brown subtracted hours from employees’ timecards in apparent violation of federal law, according to records obtained by the Houston Chronicle. The first-term councilwoman shorted an employee by more than three hours in a day in several cases. At least six times, Brown deleted enough hours from employees’ reported workweeks [...]
Another homeless feeding update
Depending on how you look at it, time is either running out for the petition signature gatherers who hope to overturn the homeless feeding ordinance, or it isn’t. Free to Give Houston, a recently formed political action committee, needs about 28,000 registered voters’ signatures to trigger a charter amendment election in November. The group sent [...]
Petition drive to overturn the homeless feeding ordinance
It’s underway. The petitioners have until July 1 to gather their signatures because that’s when the ordinance goes into effect. City Attorney David Feldman just informed me that petitioners have the longer of either 30 days following an ordinance’s passage or until the ordinance’s effective date to gather signatures. In this case, it’s the latter. [...]
“Reasonable accommodation”
According to a legal opinion provided by the City Attorney’s office, Houston must provide “reasonable accommodation” to Southwest Airlines for its proposal to offer international flights at Hobby Airport. In a memo accompanying the legal opinion, City Attorney David Feldman wrote that “consideration of such economic issues for the community cannot be controlling; the City’s [...]
More details on the city’s crime lab plan
It’s starting to come into focus. An independent crime lab could cost nearly 20 percent more than the current police-run operation, a high-level Parker administration official told a City Council committee this week. Andy Icken, the mayor’s chief development officer, who is overseeing the project, said the annual budget of $22.8 million could rise to [...]
Mayor tells Ashby foes it’s over
Mayor Annise Parker told the attendees at that neighborhood meeting to discuss the proposed settlement of the Ashby highrise lawsuit that it’s a done deal. “We have exhausted all legal means to stop this project,” said Parker, reiterating her opposition against the project. Next week, Buckhead and its architects will begin meeting to make changes [...]
Council agrees to red light camera settlement
At long last. City Council approved a payout of at least $4.8 million Wednesday to settle a lawsuit and take down Houston’s controversial red-light cameras, finally ending a legal battle that began after voters banned the devices in a referendum 15 months ago. The cameras were turned off and outlawed by council in August but [...]
No action on red light camera settlement yet
Houston City Council voted to wait two weeks before deciding whether or not to accept the settlement agreement with camera vendor ATS. The City Council on Wednesday delayed approval of a $4.8 million settlement with its red-light camera vendor amid questions about the effect of an appeals court ruling that lets two Houston lawyers intervene [...]
Red light cameras may get a Council vote
This ought to be interesting. Houston’s red-light camera vendor said on Friday that Mayor Annise Parker is trying to turn the cameras off again, and it has asked a federal judge to stop her from doing so. City Attorney David Feldman confirmed that the mayor is considering turning the cameras off as she prepares a [...]
DA gets Jones case
What sound does a hot potato make when it gets passed to someone else? The Harris County District Attorney has been asked to review for possible criminal prosecution allegations that Councilwoman Jolanda Jones used city resources to support her private law practice, Mayor Annise Parker confirmed this afternoon. Shortly after the Office of Inspector General [...]
No appeal for now of red light camera ruling
The city will have to wait until the remaining issues in the red light camera lawsuit are resolved before it can appeal the judge’s ruling. A federal judge ruled Friday that the city of Houston may not appeal his ruling invalidating the November referendum that turned off a red-light surveillance system. “The case is not [...]
More on the red light camera return
Here’s the Chron story about the reinstatement of the red light cameras. A couple of points that need to be made: Wednesday’s announcement provoked the full fury of Paul Kubosh, a lawyer who helped lead the petition drive to get the cameras banned. When reached for comment, he did not even wait for a question. [...]
Jones files her own complaint
Okay. Houston City Councilwoman Jolanda Jones, the subject of a city inspector general investigation, has filed a Texas State Bar grievance against City Attorney David Feldman. Jones’s spokeswoman, Kelly Cripe, would not provide a copy of the grievance, but she said the complaint relates to how Feldman has handled the investigative and panel-review process that [...]
Response from the city on the red light camera ruling
Previously, I wrote that I had asked the city about the possibility of appealing the ruling in the red light camera lawsuit. I received the following response from the Mayor’s office yesterday: This was what’s known as an interlocutory order from the judge. As such, we are required to seek permission from the district court [...]
ATS wants a decision on the cameras
This is just a mess. An Arizona firm says if City Hall agrees, it can turn Houston’s contentious red-light camera system back on by Aug. 1, eight months after voters rejected the surveillance operation in an election. American Traffic Solutions also pledged to work for “a mutual resolution” on damages it is owed for shutting [...]
More on the red light camera ruling
I said before that what happens next with the red light camera ruling is a political decision. Here’s how that’s shaping up. City Attorney Dave Feldman said Friday’s ruling will force the city to choose from canceling the contract with American Traffic Solutions — which might cost the city $16 million — or keeping the [...]
Judge rules red light camera referendum was invalid
Boom. A Houston federal judge today invalidated last November’s referendum that ended the red-light camera program, a ruling that has sent city leaders back to square one. U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes ruled the city can not reverse an ordinance except by a referendum of voters held within 30 days of the passage of the [...]
Sullivan files complaint against Jones
And the process gets started. A day after declaring he would not do so, Houston City Councilman Mike Sullivan filed a complaint against Councilwoman Jolanda Jones, seeking possible discipline following the release of an Office of Inspector General report that concluded Jones had used city employees and resources to benefit her private law practice and [...]
Bettencourt and Hotze lose in court again
If there’s a lawsuit against the city over a matter of how money is raised or spent, you can be sure that Bruce Hotze and Paul Bettencourt are involved. Thankfully, they have a lousy record of getting what they want by these means. An Austin appeals court on Friday upheld an earlier ruling that increased [...]
More on the new Council map
Here’s the Chron story about the proposed new Council map. Reactions were about what you’d expect for the most part. “There’s two Latino council members and you have, currently, nine districts,” [District I Council Member James Rodriguez] said. “We’re moving to 11, and we’re going to stay the same. I don’t think that’s progress.” [Mayor [...]
Costello opposes exempting the churches
From the inbox: Houston City Council Member Stephen Costello asks the Mayor and Council to exempt only state-mandated property from the drainage fee. Costello, the At Large Position 1 Council Member, offered an amendment Wednesday to the Municipal Drainage Utility ordinance that would limit exemptions to those under the state’s Local Government Code Section 552.053. [...]